Friday, July 29, 2005
After picking up a few supplies at Walgreens, I left for camping and Class III (Class 3) whitewater rafting with friends on the south fork of the American River. Steve L (and Travis?) organized. Our rafting company was Mariah Wilderness Expeditions (800-462-7424, P.O. Box 1160, Lotus, California). Google Earth was pretty useful in printing satellite maps to get there even if the roads layer didn't line up perfectly with the satellite layer. Earlier in the week Timmie sent a great reminder checklist of things to bring. I got out of San Francisco around 12:30 PM and traffic was pretty heavy in spots. I picked up Tony Q in Sacramento, we stopped at a Jack in the Box near his home so I could wolf down a Chinese chicken salad (my bill came out to $6.66), then a Walgreens where I bought cheap sunglasses, then a Starbucks so he could pick up a drink, and we got to the camp site near Lotus and Coloma around 4:30 PM at around the same time as Ted and Emery and Scott and Andy. It must have been 90 or 100 degrees F, but we pitched our tents anyhow through streaming sweat and intense heat of summer sun. Hours passed and others started arriving, alleviating our worrying, since we weren't sure when everyone was supposed to arrive. In all, we were: me, Tony Q, Ted, Emery, Andy, Scott, Timmie, Steve L, Travis, Greg, Antonio, Rich, Bryan, Jesse, Remi, Ryan, Galen. As mentioned yesterday, Patrick ended up not going. For dinner, I ate half a Safeway sandwich which Andy didn't want to eat for fear of heated mayonnaise. (No problems.) Later, some of us drove down the road for dinner at Marco's Cafe—Flavors of Italy (530-642-2025, 7221 Highway 49, Lotus, California) where everyone got their orders except for me. I had ordered a large mushroom pizza slice, but we had been there over 30 minutes and they were just sending out my order after I had requested my money back. It bothered me that the woman who gave me the refund instructed the deliverator to just give the slice away to someone else. (She should have given me the slice for free.) Nonetheless, I would return to Marco's because it's a charming and lively spot. The people seemed friendly even though the service was wanting. The (champagne?) grapes hanging overhead through the trellis work are real, the live band was pleasing, the crowd was unusually straight and tanned and smiling. We drove back to camp. I held flashlights for Rich, Jesse, and Remi who arrived late and were pitching tents. We all sat around in the dark chatting for a while until bedtime. Ted and Emery graciously shared their 4-person tent with me.